Save a Child, Save the World
by DinerGuy
Summary: Years ago, Mitch Morgan made a deal with the devil. Today, that just might be the saving grace of the human race.


_A/N: As many fics do, this one was started during a discussion with frankiemcstein about a current season and theorizing potential plotlines. And then, me being me, it ended with me writing a speculative fic. I gotta stop doin' this._

 _Also, since it is speculative, spoiler warning goes into effect now. You've been warned._

 _Unbetaed, so all mistakes are mine._

 _Standard disclaimers apply._

* * *

The warehouse was cold and dim, and the team looked around uncertainly as they entered. Their footsteps on the concrete echoed loudly in the stillness.

"Are you sure this is where the signal stopped?" Mitch asked Jamie, frowning up at the cobwebbed rafters.

Jamie wore an identical frown, although hers was directed at the device in her hand. "This is the right place," she replied, not looking up as she spoke.

"How accurate is that thing?" Dariela wanted to know. She moved closer to look over Jamie's shoulder. "Do you think she's in a back room or outside instead?"

With a shrug, Jamie nodded and glanced at Dariela. "That's certainly possible."

"Okay then." Dariela shouldered her rifle and nodded to Abe, who was standing silently behind her. "We'll go check it out. You guys stay here and keep looking."

As the Kenyattas disappeared back through the side door where the team had just entered, they passed Jackson, who was jogging up to join the others. He nodded to Abe, then pulled up beside the other three team members. His pistol was hanging by his side, his hand loosely around the grip of the weapon. "No sign of anyone having followed us," he announced. "I think we're safe."

"For now," Clementine muttered.

Mitch chuckled. "I was just going to say that," he grinned when she shot him a look.

"Can we run through the plan one more time?" Clem asked, shaking her head at her father's comment. "I mean, if we're using me as the bait, I have the right to make sure I know exactly what we're going to be doing."

"Well," Jamie shrugged, "Abe said Duchovny told him you'd stolen intellectual property from Reiden Global, and that he could have Isaac back if he gave you to her. Now, he and Dariela refused to meet up until Duchovny agreed to only bring two cronies with her as her backup, so we can safely say we'll outnumber them."

Jackson nodded as he continued the explanation. "Once Duchovny gets inside, Abe and Dariela will take care of her goons, and we'll demand Isaac back in exchange for her life."

"Sounds like a solid plan," Mitch remarked drily. "What could go wrong?"

"Well, all these extra people invited to the party, for starters." As if on cue, Duchovny's voice rang out as she appeared in the doorway. A uniformed soldier trailed behind her, the man silently sizing up the room and its occupants. "And where are the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Kenyatta? You would think that if I make a deal with someone for their child, they would have the decency to show up."

"They're not here," Clem stated flatly. "I told them I'd take care of this myself; less chance for you to hurt my friends. You wanted me? You've got me. Here I am." She spread her arms out to either side.

The top edge of the weapon tucked into her waistband caught the eye of the woman as she stalked closer, and in a flash, Duchovny had drawn her weapon and pointed it directly at Clem. "Don't move."

As soon as the woman had moved for her pistol, Jackson had lifted his own, and he stared down the barrel at Duchovny. "Drop it!" he barked.

His movement prompted the man with Duchovny to draw in Jackson's direction, while Jamie pulled her weapon in the same flurry of movement. She clenched the butt of the gun as she aimed it directly at the soldier. She didn't say a word, but her glare communicated exactly what she was thinking.

The soldier glanced from Jamie to his boss for orders, but for Duchovny's part, she didn't look bothered. "Mr. Oz, Ms. Campbell, let's be reasonable about this."

"Reasonable?" Mitch exclaimed from where he stood outside of the circle of loaded weapons. "You're the one with a gun aimed at my daughter!" He shifted and glanced between the others. "See, this is what I was afraid would happen when firearms were first mentioned in this plan," he complained.

Duchovny shook her head, her eyes darting between the others. Then she raised an eyebrow at Clem. "I believe you have something that belongs to us, Ms. Lewis," she remarked. Her voice was remarkably calm. "Return to us with it, and no one will be harmed."

"'It' is not your property," Clementine bit out. "'It' happens to be _my_ baby."

The final word of her sentence hung in the air as she faced down the older woman. The rest of the team was frozen in disbelief at what they had just heard.

Duchovny smirked in amusement. "Please, Clementine, that baby wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Reiden Global."

The first to recover, Jamie spoke up. "Uh, excuse me, but what do you mean, 'baby'?"

Clem looked over at Jamie, then just beyond her to Mitch, who was standing there slack-jawed as the dots all began connecting in his mind. "I was going to tell you," she said quietly. "I even rehearsed my speech… It just never seemed like the right time." Her face softened apologetically. "I did want to tell you, I promise."

"That's, uh, that's a big secret to be keeping, Clem," Mitch finally managed. He cleared his throat. "You're sure?"

His daughter made a face and tilted her head to the side in a shrug. "Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm pretty sure."

"But how-"

Now Duchovny rejoined the conversation. "Mr. Morgan, you don't happen to remember a certain drug trial that took place about eleven or so years ago?" she asked.

Her words brought the memory immediately to Mitch's mind, and judging from the way Jackson and Jamie's brows were furrowed, they remembered as well. Duchovny smiled as she watched their expressions.

Clem looked uncertainly between the other four. "What drug trial?" she asked slowly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jackson demanded. He had been silent up until this point, observing the exchange, but now in the others' silence, he voiced the question they were all thinking. He narrowed his eyes as he stared Duchovny down, his quick mind having already jumped three steps ahead in the discussion. "There was no indication that medication had any effect on the reproductive system."

"Ah, but you forget, Mr. Oz, that this was a trial drug," Duchovny returned. "It had been developed quite recently in the grand scheme of things; part of the trials were long term to monitor just how it influenced the human body beyond simply eradicating the disease it was created to destroy. As a man of science, you of all people should understand."

Jamie had caught up to the conversation by this point. "So what, you're saying that because Clem took this drug, she's immune to the sterility afflicting the rest of humanity?"

"Well, the rest of humanity other than those who took the drug," Duchovny nodded.

"Because there's at least one guy out there who wasn't affected as well," Mitch remarked. "What do you think the odds are that she'd hook up with one of the boys who participated in the trial?"

Clem blushed. "Dad!" she exclaimed.

"Mitch!" Jamie glared at him.

"Sorry." Mitch made a face of apology.

"It's strangely coincidental, but yes," Duchovny seemed unfazed by the embarrassment radiating off of the others. "And since this pregnancy is a result of our drug trial, the fetus is Reiden Global's intellectual property. Unfortunately, Ms. Lewis decided to leave our facility with no advance notice, constituting intellectual theft and leaving us no choice but to pursue."

Clem looked like someone had punched her in the gut, Jamie's face paled, and Jackson clenched his fists. Before any of them could say a word, however, Mitch had already leaped into the verbal fray.

"Now you see here," he snapped. "Clementine wasn't included in your trial. As a matter of fact, I had to steal those drugs to save her life in the first place!"

Clem's eyes widened. "You did what?"

"Mr. Morgan-"

But Mitch wasn't done. "In fact," he continued his tirade, "and I'm sure you remember Robert Oz's beloved mother cell - well, I had to offer that up as a trade just to get one of your corporate goons to _consider_ giving me those drugs for Clem! So really, technically speaking, the baby wouldn't be here if it weren't for Robert Oz." He paused for a quick breath and looked over at the other man standing nearby. "Jackson, you're his heir, so that means the baby belongs to you."

Jackson's eyebrows went up at the unexpected end of Mitch's sentence. "Um, Mitch, I can barely manage to keep myself alive. What am I going to do with a baby?"

Jamie was suddenly afflicted with a coughing fit.

"Dad!" Clem's left hand was on her hip. "This is _my_ child we're talking about!"

"That's not a logical argument, Mr. Morgan," Duchovny frowned.

Scowling, Mitch crossed his arms. "You're talking about kidnapping my daughter and grandchild and experimenting on them, so _excuse me_ if I don't feel like being _logical!_ "

Silence hung in the air for just a moment, then the warehouse erupted into chaos.

The door flew open with a crash as Abe stormed inside.

Duchovny instinctively whirled toward the noise.

The moment the gun was no longer pointing at Clem, Mitch dove for his daughter and pulled her to the ground.

The soldier fired at Jackson even as the other man and Jamie let off a volley of shots of their own. It didn't take long for the soldier to fall, and the moment he hit the ground, Duchovny rushed for the back door that sat several yards away.

"Stop right there!" Abe's voice boomed through the room.

Unfortunately for Duchovny, she didn't heed the warning but instead chose to turn and fire at her opponents, apparently hoping to take at least one of them down.

The response was immediate and the woman sprawled to the ground a split second later.

As the echoes of the gunshots faded away, Mitch and Clem pushed to their feet. Abe rushed over to check on Duchovny while Jamie glanced over at Jackson. Her eyes widened.

"I'm fine," he waved off her question before she could voice it. "It's just a scratch."

"She's gone," Abe announced from where he was straightening up beside their foe. He shook her head. "Why did she run?" he asked, a slight catch in his voice that everyone noticed but no one wanted to point out.

Mitch shrugged. "She wasn't a soldier," he said simply.

"Where's Dariela?" Jackson asked his friend, glancing around.

Nodding, Abe replied, "Outside. The woman held up her end of the deal; Isaac was in the vehicle."

Relieved gasps traveled around the little circle.

"Is he…?" Clem trailed off the question.

Abe smiled. "Yes, he is fine."

Meanwhile, Jamie had leaned down to search Duchovny's pockets, and a moment later, she pulled her hand out of the woman's jacket. A black phone was clenched in her fist. She smiled in satisfaction. "Perfect."

"What are you doing?" Clem asked, watching along with the others as Jamie started tapping at the device's screen.

Jamie glanced up and raised an eyebrow. "Duchovny has access to all of Reiden's files and servers. With this," and she waved the phone in her hand, "I can not only access them, but I can edit them as well. What do you say we declare the trial a failure and order all the kids returned home?"

The others were all grinning at this point.

"You sly dog," Mitch commented. Then he looked over at Clem as if the thought had just occurred to him. "You and I need to have a talk."

Jamie cleared her throat and tucked the phone into her own pocket. "Let's save the family time for _after_ we all get back on the plane, hm? Even if we hide the bodies, someone is going to catch on eventually, and I'd rather not be here when that happens." She glanced over at Abe. "We need to get you set up in the medical bay once we get back," she told him. "Think you can work off of Reiden's files to continue your research?"

"But nobody's touching this baby unless I say so," Mitch added.

Abe blinked. "Baby?"

"It's a long story." Clem shook her head. "Come on; I'll tell you on the ride home."

* * *

 _Fin._


End file.
